A Toast for Them Heroes of the Wastes
by Lanbea
Summary: The Wasteland doesn't lack in heroes. May it be the true diamond of The Commonwealth, a woman out of time or the free spirited Last, Best Hope of Humanity or your neighborly backstreet junkie, they all have something in common - ability to press on without making someone's life a misery and maybe just maybe leave behind a long trail of the dead bad guys of the nuclear apocalypse.
1. Sanctuary Ashes

If anything served as Nora's personal hell then it was this massive ascending vault platform she was standing on. Nora fought an urge to run herself into the metal walls so she didn't have to hear its roar any longer or remember all the events that led to this moment. She slumped to her knees, pressed her palms to her ears and screamed at the top of her lungs to drown out the sound of grinding gears and the screeching of metal moving against metal.

All of it appeared wrong. Wrong and surreal. It wasn't happening to her. No way in hell was it all real. Nate and Shaun were alive and well. They had to be. It was all a bad dream. A nightmare. A _very_ bad nightmare. Soon she would wake up at 2 am to a cry of her son, fumble out of her cozy bed but return to it without even leaving the room because the family robot butler performed his magic on the baby and the world would fall into its mundane normality once again.

The platform came to a halt but Nora didn't wake up. Instead sunlight embraced her body and slipped past her squeezed eyelids. Her screams dissipated and she tried to look around but as soon as she opened her eyes, she forced them to close again. After unfreezing from cryogenic pod, the sun's warmth set her skin ablaze and it took several tries to adjust her vision.

As soon as she could see again, Nora bolted off the platform before she could stop to think. Few feet away from her original position, her legs tangled and the woman fell face first into the dirt. Her tense, pulsating eyeballs watered up but not enough liquid generated to cascade down the face so only a small cry blew out of her when her chest made a contact with the ground.

The woman stayed still. She rested her forehead on the uneven surface so her mouth didn't touch the soil and took in a deep breath. Her eyes had gone dry and stung but she glanced to her right, and then to her left. She didn't see or hear anything dangerous so her body relaxed. Bad idea.

She pictured a woodpecker getting at her nostrils with a dedication of a starved vulture when a throbbing sensation covered her nose area and thick fluid dripped over her mouth and onto the ground. Nora pushed her tongue up her upper lip and it tasted like metal drenched in salt.

"Ugh."

Lead that filled her bones pulled her to the ground but Nora placed her hands under her chest and pushed herself up until her rear greeted her heels. The woman's head turned to the side, catching sight of the platform. She furrowed her eyebrows. "Wonder if you would taste of blood and pain if I licked you, you metallic son of a b…" Nora coughed. Her vocals cords had shriveled up and turned to dust.

Nora chanted nonsense under her breath as she pulled on her hair at the roots. It took a good moment before she stood and approached the platform again where she had dropped a Pip-Boy, a pistol with a full magazine and her husband's wedding ring during her fit. Balancing herself turned out to be quite the task because everything ached, starved and pleaded for a drop of water but slow and steady no way won the race when a sight of platform alone made her retch.

She jumped onto the platform as if it was a nuke itching to set off, grabbed all the items that she collected on the way out of the cursed Vault 111 and dashed straight to Sanctuary Hills.

Sanctuary Hills stood desolate. Half collapsed houses stretched across its streets and human belongings from wrecked cars to children toys littered the destroyed roads. Decay and wilted vegetation colored the once lush suburb a bleak brown.

Nora's palms moistened and her heart raced a mile per second. Her face turned sallow and her legs resembled rubber but she continued to navigate through the ruins until she noticed a figure in the distance. She picked up the pace but cogwheels in her brain kicked off to full power and she ducked behind a deformed Corvega brand car before it noticed her. The shape of the figure didn't belong to a human but a robot.

Nora peeked through bashed out windows to observe the figure in the short distance but a little red toy car sitting on the front seat caught her attention. She recognized it, which meant that the vehicle belonged to the neighboring Ms. Rosa who tried to repair it with her prepubescent kid before the bombs fell. This also meant that Nora found her home.

The longer her eyes lingered on the toy the worse the tugging in her chest became. Ms. Rosa's son used to carry it everywhere and she wished that she could eventually see her neighbors again. Nora flumped on her backside and hid her face in her shaking hands, digging nails into the skin.

"As I live and breathe! Mum!" The voice made Nora shoot off like a bottle cork.

"Codsworth! What the hell is going on?"

"Besides our geraniums still being the envy of Sanctuary Hills, I'm afraid things have been dreadfully dull around here. But everything ought to get exciting once again for the sake of the good old times as you are back and well! Well, your nose needs some fixing but otherwise well. So where is your better half, mum?"

Better half. That's right. Her better half. Nate. Nora gasped as if his words hit her in the solar plexus. "There… there were people in the vault. Have you seen them? A man dressed in leather, I think? And someone else. A woman. They had guns."

He gave her a negative and instead complained about Ms. Rosa's boy running around in his Halloween costume days too early and praised Nora's parenting abilities, which further reinforced alarm inside her. She looked at the toy car and bit her bottom lip. Codsworth pressed on about Nate once more after not receiving any answers.

"They killed him."

Instead of the reaction Nora expected, Mister Handy chattered on about checkers and charades and the distraction those games would bring like she was delusional and needed help. Nora's hands formed into fists and if Codsworth didn't ask about Shaun, she would swing at him with no hesitation.

"Shaun is not with me but you bet soon enough he will. I am going to get my baby boy back." Flames flickered in Nora's blood. She believed it despite no clue where to even start. Who knew what had happened to police stations after the bombs fell. So far she saw no signs of life at all. The worst thought crept into her mind that her son might have met his father's fate. Shivers that rushed up and down her spine forced her to sit on the sidewalk.

"200 years with no proper nutrition might have done you harm. Ah, hunger induced paranoia is a nasty business I must say but not unusual these days!"

"Wait. How long you said?" Nora flat out gaped.

"200 years. A bit over 210 actually, give or take. That means you are two centuries late for dinner!" His chuckle echoed in Nora's ears. "Would you mind a snack, perhaps? Your paleness is most disconcerting, mum. I must inform that our stock of vitamin supplements is past the expiration date unlike that hazardous stash of sir's favorite Fancy Lads Snack Cakes. Bah!"

Nora slapped her forehead. She couldn't figure out what angered her more – Codsworth's obliviousness or the absurdity of the situation. But Codsworth's complex programming didn't allow him to act like a dim-witted piece of wired junk unless something had gone affray. He lacked the usual shiny, polished surface but instead rust and a bleak shade of light grey that called for a new paint job covered his entire frame. Was he defective? "Codsworth, are you alright?"

His voice turned to a sob. "Mum, it's been just horrible. Two centuries with no one to talk to, no one to serve…"

Nora's stomach fell. She was frozen for over 200 years? For real? Her body went still and she extended her wooden arm to pat one of Mister Handy's limbs as he lamented his inability to wax floors or polish rust. Codsworth needed polishing himself and she decided to do the job herself although tinkering with robotics was Nate's favorite pastime whenever he found the time. After her husband retired from the army he had all the time in the world but none of it for her. Neither did she for him. The distance gnawed both of them yet they carried with their lives for the sake of avoiding the truth.

She sincerely believed a child would save their marriage but Nora never admitted that to him. In retrospect it was a terrible idea. They lived their lives in the middle of a seemingly endless war with communist China, food shortages and disease outbreaks razed good old USA and they dealt with other general government ridiculousness. Nora of all people would know. She worked for the military and making regular people lives miserable was a part of standard procedure.

Nora met Nate on the job although they didn't make it official until years later. His fellow soldier and a good friend messed up during an assignment and hurt a bunch of civilians. She got his case (cases really) and like a good lawyer won them all. Nate's friend was a cocky bastard but she was paid to benefit the military and apparently a status of a good soldier outweighed human decency.

Nora's and Nate's military connections brought them wealth. They had enough funds to last a lifetime while so many fellow countrymen suffered everyday consequences of war. She prided herself in that.

Little Shaun was less than a year old when the world hit the nukes and not like people didn't saw it coming. Nora should have seen it coming. But she be damned if longing for a child didn't win out. That far-fetched longing to feel human again.

"There there, Cods, nuclear fallout is a bitch but focus."

"Unfortunately I don't know much of anything, mum. After all these years I was certain all of you were… dead. But, Miss Nora, I could not let that foul language go unnoticed. Use of such obscenity would teach your son bad manners."

"I apologize." Profanities had filled her mind since she emerged on the surface but she wasn't the type to voice them. Right now she had to and the more she vocalized them the better it felt. She had to find that asshole that put a fucking bullet into her husband's head and stole her only hope to attain humanity.

"Mum, I did find this holotape. I thought you might like to have it so I kept it safe in case of your return. I believe it was sir's present to you."

Her hand trembled as she held out to receive the holotape but reconsidered and shook her head. "Keep it for now. I am not ready. So… is there any danger around?"

"Just us." A voice next to them emerged.


	2. I Got a Bullet

"Whoa… whoa! I mean no harm." A woman staring down the barrel of Nora's gun lifted her hands and wiggled all her fingers. "No weapons just all the best intentions.'

The unknown person in front of her had a small gun strapped to her hip and a knife to her thigh, and a Pip-Boy around her wrist. She was clad in combat armor that resembled an outfit that Nate wore in the photos he sent her during his military work. This one had a white scribble on the chest piece that she didn't care to read.

The grime on stranger's face and dark stains on her armor paralyzed Nora. At that moment only survival filled her mind. She had to find her son no matter what so when the woman shifted, Nora pulled the trigger. The sound of a gun going off rang in her ears and she saw the woman recoil and drop to one knee.

"Oh my!" Nora vaguely heard Codsworth's voice in the distance.

"Are you crazy!? I was unarmed! You should quickly teach yourself some Wasteland etiquette unless you fancy a bullet hole."

Nora had shot her in the shoulder but she saw no blood. The woman glared at Nora after she had recovered from the blow. "Look, I will get rid of all my stabby and shooty trinkets if that puts you at ease. Slooow and steeeady. Here… see?" The woman demonstratively pushed forward her pistol that she had unstrapped and placed on the ground while speaking. Nora closed her eyes, kneaded her lips and lowered the pistol then ran fingers over her scalp, brushing cool brown hair out of her face. Cold droplets formed on her forehead and the bright blue vault suit clang to her dampening skin. Her body heat could melt the asphalt she stood on.

"I am… sorry." Her throat could not form more than a whisper. The woman did not attack her and Nora just did this? That no way could pass for self-defense. But the person looked dangerous. She had the right. She did nothing wrong. Nothing wrong.

And yet she had just nearly shot someone dead. Nora pressed her palm to her mouth but that didn't stop stomach acid to spill past it.

"Contrary to a popular belief, a bullet to the shoulder can kill, you know." The stranger closed up on Nora but she was too weak to escape. Stranger collected Nora's shoulder length hair behind her neck and rubbed her back. "Careful next time. Relax, though. I get it."

"Mum?"

"I am alright now, Codsworth." Nora straightened herself to preserve last of her dignity. "Who are you?"

"Name's Maria. We were scavenging when we heard that dreadful Vault noise so I insisted we checked it out. Then we saw you roll in the dirt, followed you and here we are. We would have shown ourselves sooner but you started talking to your floating bucket about a rather intriguing topic."

"What outrage! I am not a bucket for Pete's sake! I'm the proud butler of the Mills family."

"Whatever you say, Coddy." Maria chuckled at Codsworth's displeased huff.

"We?"

"Umm, yeah." Maria's attention fell back to Nora. "Promise not to scream or shoot again?"

"Depends."

"Fair enough. My partner, the one that's hiding behind that wall," Maria pointed her index finger to Ms. Rosa's former house, "is a ghoul."

"A _what_?"

"A ghoul. A badly irradiated human in other words."

"That's…"

"Very unfortunate, I know. He is harmless, though. Alright?"

"Alright…"

"No shooting?"

"No shooting."

"Promise?"

"Promise." Why did she act like a pre-school kid? But soon she learned that Maria's overly soft tone was well in place.

Maria's partner only marginally looked like a human male. Burn lesions covered all of his skin, in some places (mostly on his arms and scalp) it formed flaky patches but around his neck the skin was gone altogether and exposed raw muscle. Cloudy film covered his eyeballs, making him look blind but clearly his vision was fine as he strode up to Maria without stumbling. He reminded Nora of a brain-eating undead, the ones she saw in the zombie films she despised and now she was living it. Any time this creature would strike and eat her.

"Charon. Nora. Nora. Charon." The tension in Nora's limbs disappeared when no one attacked her. Maria had a meager smile on her face and she circled her thumb over where she had been shot, the spot Nora tried to avoid to her best ability but not because of shame or guilt but if she didn't see it then it never had happened. Typical denial.

Charon faintly nodded his head with no trace of displeasure on his face. His stare was rather intense and static, which made Nora's pulse spike. He was a tall, broad shouldered ghoul and wore heavy dark leather armor. He had a knife holstered to his right calf and a belt of frag grenades hung from his hips like Christmas baubles and a gun peeked from behind his back.

At closer inspection, her new female acquaintance was remarkably beautiful despite all that dirt and wear. The cute, youthful type. She also realized that she must have looked like a disaster, the ungraceful and petty woman that would horrify her mother. Her mom was a self-important, successful woman and some of it rubbed off on her daughter. Nora's older sister used to joke that vanity ran in the family mostly because of resentment towards it. She hadn't been in touch with Rebecca in years. Another regret to add to the collection.

"Are you soldiers? You both are heavily armed."

"Oh… oh, honey. This is a casual getup. You can't survive The Wastes otherwise."

Nora massaged her temple. What the fuck.

* * *

Maria winced every time her finger caressed the spot where bullet had hit. That hurt like absolute bitch. Fucking fuck. Her armor protected her flesh as reliably as it got but the bullet impact was no joke. She wished she hadn't stood that close to the obviously out of it vault dweller with a batshit tendency to act like a trigger-happy douche.

Well, she kind of did grasp the whole situation but one never gets used to being shot. Maria counted her long overdue blessings that it was one pistol bullet but then again it only took one unlucky hit and The Mighty Lone Wanderer would had been put to rest (that friendly neighborhood disc jockey from back home in Capital Wastelandia started that nickname – minus the mighty part – and it stuck despite her not being all that lone). Nah, she'd come back and push Nora off a cliff.

Nora hadn't shot Charon or even better she hadn't screamed like a lunatic. A way better reaction than Maria's first time around a ghoul. Bartender Gob from that fuckfaced Moriarty's Saloon scared the heebie jeebies out of her. Old jerk Jericho cackled like an absolute moron back then telling her he totally understood because Gob looked like the result of the unholy mating ritual between a woman and a bag of Brahmin beef jerky. But it's okay, Gob's golden, owned a bar now and generally kicked so much ass by not selling bullshit booze that left Jericho repeatedly dry on bottle caps and grumpier than ever. All Moriarty kicked was a bucket.

Nora being a fossil on ice didn't in fact surprise Maria. She had seen enough vaults in her lifetime to get accustomed to the Vault-Tec's degenerated ways. Freezing people didn't even place in top ten of fucked up experiments list. She once told Charon she would name their kid Gary but Charon's reaction fell into "can't knock you up, dumbass" category and that conversation ended with her not speaking to him until he apologized via sex. Took a while, too. She genuinely thought she was fucking hilarious but Charon thought otherwise. Prick.

Maria helped her new-found stray go through her old house to salvage whatever had been left there and every expression Nora made had Maria bite her lips and hold back tears. When Nora caught a glimpse of her image in a shattered mirror, Maria couldn't look anymore. Nora saw herself with makeup smeared all over her face, covered in dirt, blood and vomit and her nose was slightly crooked but nothing that couldn't get fixed along the way. Maria couldn't read the expression because there was… none.

Nora rocked back and forth for a short while then swung her arm elbow first into a wall. Maria's eyeballs nearly rolled out of her sockets and she dug a stimpak into vault dweller's shoulder long before Nora pulled away from the wall. Maria could hear broken bones from miles away. She broke so many of them in her lifetime that she developed freaking psychic powers. She could sniff out broken bones. Well not really, but she loved to say that. Charon constantly rained on her parade by telling her that self-preservation is the actual skill his lover should work on. Prick.

The Lone Wanderer decided it would be best to keep stimpaks ready because Nora's reactions were more than a little backwards for a grieving mother. All that anger vanished when Nora broke to pieces at a crib and curled up next to it. Maria didn't dare to touch her, only stood watching until Nora fell asleep.

Maria knew pain. Nora embodied pain. Pain was meant to be eased and Maria took mending as her warrior's quest ever since she crawled out of a Vault 101. It also had a lot to do with how obsessed she was over Grognak the Barbarian comics. She was all about that fearless hero life.

Understanding of suffering and misery connected her to people but Nora was something else. At first Maria thought they would check up on the vaultie, give some guidance, maybe a stimpak or two and set her on the way but losing loved ones resonated with Maria and intrigued her. Not every day someone 200 years old crawled out of a hole without looking like a beef jerky on whole lot of rads. Jericho had planted that imagery in her mind that she had a hard time letting go of after all those years.

The Lone Wanderer rejoined Charon outside where he minded his own business while Codsworth floated off to fry some roaches in the nearby houses. Maria's stomach rumbled just thinking about them. Radroaches looked like demons with six legs and tasted like demons with six legs however meat was meat and no picky eater survived the day.

"Well, color me impressed, Coddy, you are a good old bucket. Way better than mine." Maria gave Codsworth a thumbs up like those women on Pre-War posters after he informed the duo that all threat had been terminated and Charon volunteered to pick up the remains.

"For the hundredth time, miss, I am no bu…"

"Yes, yes. Don't overheat. Please, when your mistress gets up, would you mind informing me? I think we will settle in the house we previously hid in."

"Of course, I can't repay your kindness." Codsworth's voice raised a pitch.

"No worries. Take care."

While Charon fiddled with fire to prepare dinner, Maria pushed two old, stained matrasses together, sat down and browsed through their leather backpacks. Whatever unsanitary crap clung to those mattresses or grew out of them, long had stopped bothering basically everyone. Bed was a bed and no picky sleeper woke up without cramping the next day.

Thankfully they could afford to have another person along on their journey and Maria tuned in on what the worst radio host of all times referred to as Diamond City Radio. The Lone Wanderer broke out in laughter because he played those same damned songs that Maria used to loop back in D.C. Amazing.

Minus this Travis guy. Not amazing. Too stutter-y and had charm of a toothpick.

"She's a decent shot for someone who just crawled out of a Vault. I could see she aimed to my left. It took me months to learn to shoot straight. Dad's BB gun sucked." Maria prompted Charon as they ate.

"If I had a say she'd be missing a head."

"Don't brood. I am alive and well. I had to let her know I'm harmless, though. Now if I think about it, maybe I should have taken the rest of my weapons off."

"That's highly idiotic. Anyway, I wish to check your shoulder."

"I can feel its purple-ness. You'd still make love, right?"

"Can you move it?"

"Barely." Maria emulated Codsworth's huff from earlier. This man had no heart.

"Med-X?"

"Nah, but holy crap, that's a huge needle. The Commonwealth isn't fucking around with its chems."

"Worth teaching the raider scum some good Wasteland etiquette."


	3. The Rocket that Didn't Fly

"Maybe you should try Concord, Miss Nora."

"There are still people in Concord?"

"Why sure, mum, they are a little rough but people nonetheless. I was shot at only once or twice last time I gave it a visit." The robot turned his limbs around his axis pleased to have an input into the discussion about the next course of action. The city of Concord stood about 20 minutes away on foot from the relatively small island of Sanctuary Hills.

"Hopefully not raiders." Maria scratched the back of her neck.

"Raiders?" Nora's locked her eyes with Maria's and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Oh, the ultimate vermin of The Wasteland. They are like radroaches, never go the fuck away. Constantly high out of their minds, murder and, as their namesake suggest, raid everything and everyone."

"And no one does anything about it?" Nora massaged her temples, an apparent habit she engaged in on several occasions.

"What can I say? Tough times we live in."

"We don't have a choice." Defrosted Woman held a damaged family photo she most likely found in her house the day before. Charon had similar family photos taken with people smiling their brightest and looking their happiest. Some of them sincere and some an imitation of happiness but that was so long ago that he barely even remembered faces he once held dear. His contract was the only reminder that the other life existed.

"Anyway, first we need to clean you up. I have some spare clothes but staying in that vault jumpsuit has its perks so…"

"No."

"Aaalright, no blue jumpsuits. Let's get to it."

Charon sensed right away that the whole affair meant trouble. When the woman agreed to Maria's offer of help, Charon complained but Maria wouldn't have it and at the end of the day she called the shots. Everything would get complicated if this Nora died along the way but he was confident he could keep her alive for his own sake until they parted ways.

But damn, even he had to be impressed when both women emerged from the ruined house and other than former vault dweller's broken capillaries on the face, she turned from a pathetic mess into almost a proper wastelander albeit healthier and plumper than the typical common folk. She carried herself well; head high and shoulders back and Charon saw potential in that unless she bled out somewhere in The Commonwealth. Then good riddance.

The woman's notable features differed from regular womenfolk these days, which reinforced the fact that two centuries changed people but Charon predicted that Wasteland will get to her be it in form of death or survivalist lifestyle, similarly to what happened to Maria when she left 101, who acted like a puppy before life toughened her up more than he liked.

Nora explained to them that she had possessed a gun license and visited a shooting range on occasion but had never shot at a human. The incident with Maria became her initiation. That prompted Charon's memory that one had to acquire a license back then but nowadays even kids had an unwritten one to murder in cold blood.

The first wave of trouble splashed them sooner than Charon had predicted, though. On the way to Concord they ran across Red Rocket truck stop and a dog. That stupid goddamn mutt.

"They do what now?" Maria exclaimed when bald mole rats broke through the dirt and leaped at them. The ugly rodents of Commonwealth where proficient at ambushing and more vicious than the ones in D.C., which made his lover run around like a chicken without its head while Charon and the stray pommeled through the mutated pests. Even Nora had killed one dead while Maria hid behind Charon's back. What the fuck that dumbass had her assault rifle for? "Where is Moira when I need her?"

"Thankfully not here." Charon blasted a mole rat's head off with his beloved shotgun and kicked it while the dog took care of the last one.

"Moira's a friend."

"Your friend. Suits me fine."

He noticed how Maria's knuckles dug into her sides. Over past couple of years she had taken more offense with him but still put effort into avoiding quarrels. Charon wondered what caused that: acceptance, tolerance, or resignation. Whatever it was, it suited him fine as well.

Happy barking filled the air and they both turned toward Nora who was patting the mutt after their little pest problem had been solved. The way the dog went at its prey, fangs out, blood splatters everywhere and could differentiate hostiles from non-hostiles, suggested remarkable aptitude. The mutt circled Nora, sat on its back legs and whined, and that woman gave in and decided to take him along, which wasn't a half bad idea. The flea bag could serve as a cover in a pinch.

Maria tapped her fingers on her hips while observing the scene. At some point while they all skimmed through the decaying, rubble filled truck stop, she had disappeared from the sight and hid behind the only building in the area. She sat on the ground, leaned against a large trash container and, judging by used syringe that laid by her feet, it wasn't her first Med-X round. Charon grabbed her by the wrist and pulled on it before she managed to stick a needle into her vein. Maria's looked at him with constricted, darting pupils, dropped the drug, and her lips formed some sort of a word but instead of saying anything, she looked downwards to her lap.

"You refused it last night so I take your shoulder is fine."

"Yeah."

"Over a fucking dog?"

"Yeah."

"Fuck, Maria!" He growled and fought an urge to shake her. Charon's blood boiled hot and he put too much pressure on her wrist and withdrew. Maria probably lacked any reaction due to Med-X working in her system.

"What the fuck do you want from me." Maria kept her voice down not to draw unnecessary attention.

"Painkillers aren't even your thing. At least be consistent if you want to keep fucking up."

"Fucking up?" She stomped her foot like a child. "Who the fuck you think you are to tell me what to do? I loved my dog!"

"It was two years ago, get over it. You are an addict with an excuse at every step."

"Last time I checked I still have your contract so better watch your goddamn mouth!"

"I'm tired of babysitting your incompetent ass. And now I have two of those."

"Oh, now you are angry I am trying to help someone."

"You are trying to help yourself."

Maria patted down pockets on her jeans and drew out a pack of smokes along with a dingy flip lighter. She pressed a cigarette's butt between her lips, lit it and closed her eyes as her body soaked up the nicotine, the great addition to her current state. Charon refused his impulse to drag the cigarette out of her mouth but he had burned enough of that bridge for one day.

* * *

"114 bucks per gallon of nuclear coolant. No wonder the world went to hell." Nora caught a glimpse of the sign that had seen better days. The whole place didn't differ from Sanctuary's scenery and Nora's gut twisted. Did no one really try to fix anything in 200 years?

Red Rocket used to be a vibrant and busy service station, the only one in close proximity to her suburb, but now it was no more than a single rusted building, dysfunctional coolant pumps and other service station litter like tires, traffic cones and abandoned vehicles scattered across its perimeter. The station's signature rocket statue served as spit on Nora's face because of what humanity had lost.

Maria and the zombie disappeared from her field of vision so Nora fiddled with her Pip-Boy that proved itself as useful tool. She scrolled through information of her vitals, Geiger counter, a map, radio stations and a holotape player. Geiger counter. Great. Vault-Tec had prepared for everything and Charon was a testimony of grand foresight. And now she was praising Vault-Tec? She went insane.

She shouldn't have left Codsworth behind but butlers served not fought and losing her connection to her time filled her mind with exclamation marks. But now she had a new companion, a surprisingly pure bred looking German Shepherd male that could die just as fast as or even faster than her robot.

Rebecca loved dogs. She owned three of them. They lived in times when people could not hold onto their pets anymore due to circumstances of war and so many of them ended up on the streets proving to be a great nuisance. And yet Rebecca picked them all up like a vacuum cleaner. Nora constantly found herself annoyed about how someone with childish ideals like her sibling could make it in life. And now Nora had a pet of her own and not because she wanted one but the void in her chest ached to be filled.

Maria took her time. Nora heard mutter coming from behind the corner so they hadn't abandoned her yet. She didn't know if she should trust them but they were a safer bet than anything Nora could come up with. Maria seemed to her like a doting hen, which gave her a pause. Appearances deceived and this trip could turn into some elaborate trap. No one was this nice without an underlying motive. And Charon? That creature was wrong. But both helped her. That had to count for something.

Deceit. Remember the concept, miss lawyer? Nora had been screwed over by "nice" more times than she cared to keep a track of. In her profession a mastered warm smile and false remorse excused crimes hand in hand with Nora's ability to talk someone's teeth in. She trusted no one. Not even herself.

Finally, Maria joined Nora. Her new acquaintance had pulled her black hair into a ponytail, wore dark sunglasses and cast off a faint smell of cigarette smoke. Nora could really do a smoke right now. She quit smoking during pregnancy and had missed it since.

Maria had a ridiculous getup as the sun had started setting, although in combination with her olive beret she looked like those tough women out of action flicks riddled with explosions that excited Nate as if he hadn't seen enough of those during the war.

"You going to name him?"

"What, the dog?"

"Yeah, unless you fancy a huggable dead mole rat."

"Just dog."

"That's it?"

"Yes."

"Aaalright. Nice to meet you, Dog." Maria patted dog's back to which he responded with wiggling his tail and a placid expression. "I used to have a dog, too. Reeeal smart one. Old boy got shot and died soon after. I was too late to save him."

"I have never owned a pet."

"Wrong." Maria pointed at the Shepherd. "Now you have all the time to make up for the lack of blood drenched pup that loves tearing out heats of its enemies. I wonder what this one does, though. Hey, boy, do you go for the throats? Or are you tear-off-limbs kinda guy?"

Dog cocked his head to the side, gave her the dumbest look and barked in response. Nora's furrowed her eyebrows again and her temples throbbed with new force. She was about to develop deep wrinkles and a migraine from this ridiculous situation she had wound up in.

But no matter, Shaun was the priority and she would find him against all odds. Get him back, become the best mother she could be and raise him in this rotten, deteriorated world, the hazardous result of humanity's greed. Oh, God…


End file.
